This invention relates to a music performance training system and, more particularly, to a training system for music performance, a keyboard musical instrument equipped with the training system and a training keyboard.
A typical example of the music performance training system sequentially notices a player of keys to be depressed. The notice is given through an array of optical indicators. In detail, the prior art music performance training system is installed in an acoustic piano, which is usually equipped with eighty-eight black/white keys. The eighty-eight black/white keys are assigned pitch names, respectively, and the optical indicators are placed on or in the vicinity of the eighty-eight black/white keys. Therefore, eighty-eight optical indicators are required for the keyboard. The eighty-eight optical indicators are connected to a controller, and the controller sequentially energizes the optical indicators associated with the keys to be depressed. The player depresses the keys, and practices a tune on the keyboard. Thus, the prior art music performance training system guides the player for the practice in fingering on the keyboard.
The prior art music performance training system is not bad for a player who has practiced the acoustic piano for some time past. However, beginners feel the prior art music performance training system hard to follow. The reason why the beginners feel hard is that the optical indicators are too many to quickly search them for the radiation. In other words, the prior art music performance training system is appropriate to a player who has born most of the music score in mind. Thus, the prior art music performance training system is not suitable for the beginners.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a training system, which is suitable for stepwise improving skills of music performance.
It is also an important object of the present invention to provide a keyboard musical instrument equipped with the training system.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a training keyboard, which allows a trainee to stepwise improve skills.
The present inventors contemplated the problem inherent in the prior art music performance training system, and noticed that beginners were expected to have born the relation between the pitch names and the keys in mind before practicing the fingering. However, it was not easy to bear the relation in mind. The present inventors concluded that the beginners had to practice the fingering on the keyboard without change of the finger positions.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a training system for music performance comprising an electric tutor guiding a trainee in fingering on plural keys along a passage and checking the plural keys to see whether or not the trainee manipulates keys on a predetermined side with respect to a key previously manipulated in at least one educational mode, and a sound generating system cooperating with the electric tutor in the aforesaid at least one educational mode and generating a tone along the passage when the trainee manipulates one of the keys on the predetermined side. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a keyboard musical instrument selectively established in a performance mode and at least one educational mode, and the keyboard musical instrument comprises plural keys selectively depressed by a trainee along a passage in the aforesaid at least one educational mode and a training system including an electric tutor guiding a trainee in fingering on the plural keys along the passage and checking the plural keys to see whether or not the trainee depresses keys on a predetermined side with respect to a key previously depressed in the aforesaid at least one educational mode and a sound generating system cooperating with the electric tutor in the aforesaid at least one educational mode and generating a tone along the passage when the trainee depresses one of the keys on the predetermined side.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a training keyboard for training a trainee in typing comprising plural keys respectively assigned to fingers of the trainee and respectively representing plural object groups each including plural objects, an electric tutor selectively specifying the plural keys to be manipulated for the objects respectively selected from the associated plural object groups and judging the keys manipulated by the trainee to see whether or not the trainee correctly manipulated the plural keys, and an interface between the electric tutor and the trainee for informing the trainee of the judgement made by the electric tutor.